Wolves suffer second BBL defeat

WORCESTER Wolves succumbed to their second successive defeat in the British Basketball league falling to Sheffield Sharks 78-64 at the University of Worcester Arena on Friday.

The match had started brightly for the Worcester outfit as a confident Trevor Setty three-pointer opened affairs, with Alex Navajas and Danny Huffor both doing likewise to set up an early 15-12 lead.

Deondre McWhorter, who made his home debut after five minutes, rattled in a quick-fire eight points to help maintain a slender one-point lead for the hosts at 26-25 going into the second quarter.

Bustling forward, Jermel Kennedy twice connected and twice made bonus free throws as Sharks struggled to hold him back, and Wolves led 37-29 six minutes before half-time.

But, after that, Worcester’s offense stagnated, which allowed Shaheed Davis to ignite Sheffield’s response as he swatted away an Andrew Bachman effort, before proceeding to rat-a-tat home a quartet of pre-interval scores in a 17-4 surge.

Already trailing 46-41, matters worsened for Wolves after the break as their passes went astray, while Sharks’ confidence continued to increased.

During the whole of the third quarter, Worcester could only muster a paltry two baskets as the deficit widened to 64-53 and with the final period showing no improvement, Wolves tumbled to a disappointing and inevitable defeat.

Head coach Paul James said: “The previous week against Cheshire we were lucky to get back into things, but we got what we deserved against Sharks. We simply didn’t run anything. We’ve got all the plays but we didn’t execute them.

“We had players running all over the place, but not to the right positions. We needed to do a much better job of focusing and getting the ball to the right people at the right time.

“We have a lot to do. The Sheffield game was very disappointing. We have to take our punishment, learn from this and move on.”

Wolves return to action in a fortnight’s time when they host Glasgow Rocks on Friday, October 14.

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The Worcester Observer is one of a group of local weekly newspapers spanning Worcestershire, Warwickshire and the West Midlands published by Bullivant Media - each newspaper providing all the latest local news, sport and advertising, in print and 247 on line.